<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>journeys end in lovers' meeting by lordbirthdayxv</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26855083">journeys end in lovers' meeting</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/lordbirthdayxv/pseuds/lordbirthdayxv'>lordbirthdayxv</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Monsta X (Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Non-Famous, Boyfriends, Character Study, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Husbands, M/M, Meet-Cute, Romantic Comedy, Slice of Life</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 17:13:49</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,292</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26855083</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/lordbirthdayxv/pseuds/lordbirthdayxv</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Changkyun lies in bed and reminisces about coincidences and life-altering questions as one half of his forever takes his time in the shower.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Im Changkyun | I.M/Yoo Kihyun</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>56</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>journeys end in lovers' meeting</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Collision. That’s how Changkyun recalls their first meeting. Two people. Two worlds. Many, <em>many</em> feelings. At the forefront of which was irritation because Kihyun did not appreciate having hot coffee spilled all over his chest. </p><p>A flurry of apologies and hard glares. The people in the hallway passing them by as they stood in their own little universe, trading words, some soft and uttered with horrified contrition, others gritted out, the slightest hint of a lisping sibilance in their wake. Changkyun had offered to have the sweater dry cleaned. Kihyun had agreed. Brusque. Disappearing into a lecture hall down the corridor. Changkyun distinctly remembers feeling awake enough to not need any more coffee that day. </p><p>His heart had only slowed down when he was back in his dorm. </p><p>When they met for coffee later that day (“Ironic, considering.” Kihyun had remarked and Changkyun had laughed nervously), Kihyun had the sweater in a bag and another one on. It was pink. The color of his cheeks as he sat with a steaming mug in his hands and not long after, the color of Changkyun’s ears when he got caught staring. They had parted with the bag in Changkyun’s hands and a promise. Small and inconsequential. But to Changkyun it meant he would see the beautiful boy with a near perpetual frown once again. On his way back, he wondered how many more sweaters he could ruin if it meant seeing him again. </p><p><em>Thank you</em>. The beautiful boy with the frown had said the next time they met. Changkyun had blushed furiously for no good reason other than the boy had a tiny mole on the corner of his mouth and it made Changkyun want to kneel in front of him, right there on the café floor. “Which was probably dirty”, Kihyun told him much later, his little nose wrinkled, “I’m glad you didn’t do that”. Changkyun had merely laughed and shook his head. He still would have, dirty floors be damned. Kihyun never did quite understand the power of that little mole. How could he when he couldn’t see what Changkyun could. And honestly? It was better this way. He had a big enough ego already.</p><p>They had lost track of each other for a woeful few weeks after that. Changkyun had pined pathetically in his room, much to the amusement of his roommate who found the entire thing utterly hilarious. </p><p>“Just look him up on Instagram, you idiot.” “I can’t.” “Why the fuck not?” A pained pause. A sigh. “I never asked his name.” </p><p>Minhyuk’s eyes had grown as wide as saucers as he barked what sounded like laughter mixed with whale noises. He got a pillow in his face for that. </p><p>Fate had other plans, however. Except, they were hardly ever well-executed. The next day found Changkyun blinking dazedly at the frowning boy, who was now frowning harder and muttering apologies, as something hot dripped down his chest and cooled rapidly, leaving a strange burning behind. The frowning boy had whipped out a pack of wet wipes, proceeding to dab at Changkyun’s chest. And Changkyun had stood there, trying to tell him it was alright. That he needn’t worry. That no amount of stained sweaters would ever be enough. Instead, he had taken the boy’s wrist, absently thinking how delicate it was, and asked: “What is your name?”</p><p>And the boy had blinked in confusion before replying: “Kihyun.”</p><p>It was then, hearing his name that Changkyun knew his life had changed. In what way he had no idea. Not then at least. All he knew was that “Kihyun” was a name forever tied to stained sweaters, hot coffee, moles like constellations on skin and the sudden, inexplicable urge to kneel. To give up and give in. To give, every which way Kihyun would have him. To <em>give, give, give</em>. Fate and her poorly executed plans had brought forth this collision and Changkyun knew then, that he had always been on the road to Kihyun. Headed toward him with no concept of where he was going to end up. And now he <em>knew</em>. </p><p>With all these thoughts thought, folded up and tucked neatly away, Changkyun breathed a sigh of relief. There would be no more pining.</p><p>Over the next few weeks they saw each other often. A friend of Changkyun's knew a friend of Kihyun's and suddenly Minhyuk realized he had known Kihyun all along (“How was I supposed to know you liked the rat?!” “It’s hamster you <em>useless</em> hyung!”), and they had begun to move in the same circles. Brought together. With each passing day, Changkyun noticed more things about Kihyun that gave him pause and more often than that, embarrassingly impromptu erections in inconvenient places. He noticed that Kihyun’s hair fell over his brows when he bent over his books in the cold light of early winter mornings. That he had a light dusting of freckles over the bridge of his nose. That his cheeks seemed to flush with color at the slightest provocation. That his hands were always cold and he had a habit of blowing on them and then tucking them underneath his thighs. </p><p>Changkyun noticed all this and took to brushing Kihyun’s hair away from his face when he studied. Took to sitting close to him and stealing glances at him, heart squeezing when he scrunched up his nose to frown. Took to casually taking his hand and rubbing soft circles on the back of it with the pad of his thumb before putting them in his own pocket. Changkyun was rewarded every time with a blush, sometimes followed by soft laughter. And it would have been enough, really. Except now, post-Collision (he tended to capitalize the C in his head. It was a special event after all), it was not enough. It never would be. </p><p>He decided he didn’t want to waste time admiring from afar what he could admire up close. Didn’t want to pine away in his room and second guess himself. So one day, early in the morning as they sat together in the library and Minhyuk napped on his open Psychology textbook nearby, Changkyun took a deep breath and asked yet another, life-changing question.</p><p>“Will you go out with me?”</p><p>Kihyun had looked up from his laptop, eyes startled behind his glasses and asked: “What?”</p><p>So Changkyun, patient as ever, had repeated his request. Searched Kihyun’s face for any sign of discomfort. It never came. A pink flood invaded his cheeks and his teeth caught his lower lip in a vice grip. Released it slowly and left it wet and red and Changkyun aching to kiss it. </p><p>“Okay.” </p><p>Their first date had been at the same old café and Kihyun still cackles with glee at the memory as Changkyun embarrassedly buries his face in a book. It had been the infernal cream. Kihyun had managed to smear a bit on his top lip, right over that mole and Changkyun was suddenly seized by the urge to be romantic. Had reached across the table to wipe it off and knocked over his coffee right onto his lap. The rest of the afternoon had consisted of him trying to wash out the stain at Kihyun’s apartment and Kihyun laughing hysterically outside the bathroom door. </p><p>“You need better motor co-ordination for that, you know.” He hasn’t let it go. Changkyun wants to argue but the bruise from the corner of the table still kind of stings on his thigh so he settles for rolling his eyes and sticking out his tongue. </p><p>Coffee became something of a hazard in their relationship. Kihyun preferred green tea anyway and soon enough, Changkyun added the smell of freshly brewed tea to the list of things that reminded him of Kihyun. He discovered that his heart could beat twenty different ways to twenty different things Kihyun did. He noticed that Kihyun’s eyelashes were long enough to lie flat against his cheeks when he leaned in to kiss him for the very first time. And when Changkyun’s hands fluttered, carefully, nervously to his waist, Kihyun deepened the kiss and melted easily into his arms. </p><p>He also learned that no matter how much he wanted to, he shouldn’t cook for Kihyun for the simple reason that he couldn’t cook and Kihyun liked his kitchen intact. Kihyun wasn’t big on public displays of affection, so when he hesitantly hooked his little finger with Changkyun’s as they browsed the mall one day, Changkyun felt something elated within him take flight. Later it settled like a sweet, honeyed ache in his stomach when Kihyun looped his scarf around Chankgkyun’s neck in the foyer, pulled him close and whispered: “Take me to bed.” After that, it was one discovery after the next. Each kiss a new revelation, each tender caress a herald. And when he woke up the next morning to Kihyun’s skin dappled with sunlight, his lashes fanned across his cheeks and his legs tangled with Changkyun’s, Changkyun realized with a startling and almost terrifying clarity that this was what ‘forever’ looked like. </p><p>“You’re <em>so</em> sappy,” Kihyun still whispers even as he places kisses on every inch of skin he can and all Changkyun can do is pull him closer and whisper something sweet in his ear to prove his point. He hadn’t been able to articulate his feelings then. He had known what the flighty feeling inside him was, what it was called. But something always held him back. Some vague fear of shattering a golden ball of glass that seemed to surround them at all times. Saying it made it real. And it was real but an irrational part of him always told him it wasn’t. That he was moving too fast and it wasn’t time yet. </p><p>It was a few months later, as he sat working on his dissertation when Kihyun said something that was, once more, life-changing. Sitting on the floor, his back against the sofa as he read aloud, his lilting voice filtered into Changkyun’s ears:</p><p>
  <em>“Trip no further, pretty sweeting,<br/>
Journeys end in lovers’ meeting-<br/>
Every wise man’s son doth know.”</em>
</p><p>Changkyun knew then that it was time. What was time anyway when he was here and Kihyun was here too, reading in that lovely voice of his. So he put away his laptop, crawled off the sofa into Kihyun’s lap. Breathed the next words against his lips.</p><p>
  <em>“What is love? ‘tis not hereafter;<br/>
Present mirth hath present laughter;”</em>
</p><p>Hands on his face, cupping his cheeks so tenderly. Changkyun looked into clean eyes as deep as the ocean.</p><p>
  <em>“What’s to come is still unsure:<br/>
In delay there lies no plenty”</em>
</p><p>Kihyun’s hands had moved then, pulling him into his orbit. Warm, warm and so beautiful. His eyes alight with a strange fire as he finished the poem, whispering it into Changkyun’s ear.</p><p>
  <em>“Then come kiss me, sweet-and-twenty,<br/>
Youth’s a stuff will not endure.”</em>
</p><p>Changkyun had moaned something indistinct before blurting out <em>I love you</em> like a desperate prayer and Kihyun had whispered it back, a ‘too’ tacked at the end. Had kissed him so thoroughly he had felt sated for days afterwards. </p><p><em>Milestones, all of them</em>, Changkyun thinks now, lying in bed and looking up at the ceiling. There had been so many after that one. And he hadn’t really imagined anything else being that difficult to achieve. Didn’t really see anything beyond that moment. So when Kihyun left his chair and kneeled next to him on one knee a few years later in the old café, the first thing that came to his mind was, “I wanted to kneel so bad back then”, followed by “oh god the floor has definitely not been sweeped”, and then by “wait what is happening, why is he kneeling?” Kihyun had smiled nervously, opened his palm and offered Changkyun a future, a possibility.</p><p>Changkyun had accepted and to this day continues to insist that he hadn’t sobbed in the middle of the café. Kihyun, to this day, respectfully disagrees. </p><p>“Are you getting out of bed anytime soon? We’re supposed to go in today.”</p><p>Changkyun looks to the doorway and sees Kihyun there, freshly showered and looking kind of annoyed. The usual. </p><p>“We need to get there at 11 and it’s already 9,” he huffs, striding forward and stripping the bed of all the blankets. Changkyun whines despite himself.</p><p>“S’early.”</p><p>Kihyun is on him the next second. Strangling him. As gently as he can.</p><p>“We can’t make a bad first impression, Changkyun. I’m this close to puking my guts out I’m so fucking nervous and you’re still not out of bed and it’s driving me <em>insane-</em>”</p><p>Changkyun turns in his grip. Lets Kihyun straddle his waist and runs gentle fingers up his sides. Kihyun looks like a taut ball of nerves.</p><p>“We’re gonna be fine, baby,” Changkyun says, looking up at him. Opens his arms and marvels at small, unceasing wonders when Kihyun fits into them like a puzzle piece. “We’ve already met her once. She likes us. We’ll be fine.” </p><p>Kihyun raises his head to look into his eyes. “Promise?” he whispers. </p><p>And Changkyun’s heart still manages to do a very professional flip inside his chest even after all these years. He sits up and kisses him, long and tender. “Yeah, baby. Of course.”</p><p>Kihyun squeezes his arms around him once and smiles. Bright. Still beautiful. “Well then hop to it. Can’t go meet our daughter if you don’t get your ass out of bed.”</p><p>Changkyun laughs as Kihyun gets off him and begins rummaging in the closet for something to wear. Puts on his slippers and makes his way to the bathroom. Another year. Another milestone. Another addition to their little family. And this time, he isn’t unsure in the slightest.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>
  <a href="https://twitter.com/ajghar1">Twitter</a>
</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>